| Green
Politics by John W. Warnock (1) Short notes on Green Politics Very short notes and comments on Green politics, political events and Green political theory and practice. Short Notes on Green Politics (2) Green Political Theory and Practice. Articles on the Green movement in general. Debate about the various ideological positions within the Green movement. Differences between Green political parties. Environmentalism versus ecology. Green Political Theory and Practice (3) Urban sprawl development Articles on urban sprawl development and its impact on social and environmental issues. Focus is on corporate-planned development in Regina in the context of the North American experience. Urban Sprawl Development (4) Green Party of Canada There is an ongoing debate over the political direction of the Green Party of Canada. The new leadership has taken the party strongly to the political right. Many Green activists have quit and others have been purged. The present leadership is firmly committed to centralized control in Ottawa. Elsewhere, there is a push for a decentralized federal structure. Some who have quit the GPC in protest have formed the Peace and Ecology Party. Others are urging provincial divisions to withdraw from the GPC and form a new separate structure. Others are pushing for a general meeting under the present Constitution to remove the present leadership. This turmoil over ideological direction, the nature of the party structure, and the growing concern over the strong patriarchal nature of the current leadership is not unique to Canada. Most European Green parties have gone through similar struggles. In quite a few European countries there are and have been more than one Green party. Different ideological orientations are reflected in a wide variety of party names. This is part of the process of building a movement. Green Party of Canada (5) New Green Alliance/Green Party of Saskatchewan In 1983 there was an attempt to create a Green Party of Saskatchewan, but it did not succeed. In the mid-1990s a group of political activists in Regina began meeting to lay the groundwork for a Saskatchewan Green party. This culminated in a founding meeting in 1998. The name New Green Alliance was chosen to indicate that the party was a left Green party similar to those in the Scandinavian countries and Australia and New Zealand. Social justice was to be an equal concern with the ecological crisis. In 2005 at the Annual General Meeting the delegates chose to change the name to the Green Party of Saskatchewan. There was no change in policy or political direction. Quite a few members were concerned that the inclusion of the term "Alliance" was leading people to confuse the party with the Canadian Alliance, with it right-wing policies, and in particular its hostility to the Aboriginal community and Treaty Rights for First Nations people. The Green Party of Saskatchewan has subsequently shifted to the political right, coming under the influence of the new Green Party of Canada. New Green Alliance/Green Party of Saskatchewan (6) Fundamental Green Principles All Green parties around the world subscribe to the Four Pillars of the international Green movement. They are as follows: (1) Ecology (2) Grassroots Democracy (3) Social Justice (4) Nonviolence In addition to the Four Pillars, almost all Green parties have adopted some form of the additional six basic principles to create the Ten Key Values. They are as follows: (5) Decentralization (6) Community-based economics (7) Feminism or the creation of a post-patriarchal society (8) Respect for Diversity (9) Personal and global responsibility (10) Focus on the needs of the future The following are key links: Green Party of Saskatchewan (formerly the New Green Alliance) Green Party of Canada |
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